Wolves Around the World: The Iberian Wolf (Part 1)

Wolves Around the World: The Iberian Wolf (Part 1)
 By Rick Lamplugh
(The first in a series of posts about the plight of wolves around the world.)Wolves once roamed the entire Iberian peninsula, the home of Portugal and Spain. But in the mid-1900s the Spanish government wiped out all the wolves except for those in the country’s northwestern corner.Spain may have the largest wolf population in Western Europe—about 1500 animals—according to Pedro Alcantara and Marcela Plana, writing in the report, «The Wolf in Spain.» But those wolves are in serious trouble. The report lists many problems. Most sound similar to those faced by wolves in the U.S.

There is growing human pressure on wolf habitat which is shrinking due to natural and human-caused fires. Highways and railways make wolf travel dangerous.

There are rancher-wolf conflicts. Alcantra and Plana write that a cause of this may be, «The ignorance and superstition—hard words but not less true—of the agrarian population that both suffer wolf attacks on their livestock and fear the figure of the wolf…” They write that ranchers are not compensated for wolf-caused losses, and this leads to poaching, poisoning, and setting habitat-destroying fires.

The Iberian wolf is legally hunted. In parts of Spain, trophy hunters bid in an auction—often more than the equivalent of $6,000—for the right to kill one wolf. Alcantara and Plana state that the money raised does not go to positive uses such as compensating ranchers.

The report says poaching is also a problem: 80% of the wolves that die each year are killed by poachers. No poachers have ever been fined.

Alcantara and Plana contrast the situation in Spain with that of Portugal where about 10% of the peninsula’s wolves live and are protected. When those wolves trot over the border into Spain, they are killed by hunters. This is similar to what happens when wolves leave Yellowstone National Park and cross into Idaho, Montana, or Wyoming.

There are efforts to protect Iberian wolves. In 2013 a Spanish advocacy group, Lobo Marley, gathered 198,000 signatures on a petition calling for the wolf’s protection. Lobo Marley states on its website that they see no justification for wolf killing. They are not opposed to the livestock industry, and they understand that traditional livestock practices are in danger of extinction too. They acknowledge “occasional predation on livestock.” They will support ranchers that coexist with wolves and oppose those that don’t.

Lobo Marley also wants to show that the presence of the Iberian wolf can benefit rural economies. They are working on promoting a “Lobo Marley” brand to help sell products produced by farmers who coexist with wolves. This is similar to the “Predator Friendly” brand that is trying to gain a foothold in the U.S.

Lobo Marley raised money and participated in the last auction for the right to hunt wolves. They bought two wolves and—in a controversial move—instead of hunting them will save them. They want to prove that a live wolf is worth more than a dead one. More on this next week in Part 2.

To read about the wolf’s ecological role, check out my new bestseller, In the Temple of Wolves, with more than 100 Five-Star reviews on Amazon: http://amzn.to/Jpea9Q

Photo of Iberian wolves by Juan Jose Gonzalez Vega